Algemene gebruiksvoorwaarden

General Terms and Conditions of Use

These general terms and conditions of use in combination with currently applicable legislation govern access to and navigation on the website of Kompass International SA (hereinafter the “Kompass website”). Users are requested to read these general terms and conditions of use carefully before using the Kompass website. By using the Kompass website, users agree to be bound by the general terms and conditions of use as displayed on the site at the moment they access it. Failure to accept these terms and conditions will mean that use of the Kompass website is forbidden.
Within these general terms and conditions of use, “Kompass” shall refer to the Kompass Group, comprising Kompass International SA, its subsidiaries and other associated or contracting companies. These general terms and conditions of use shall apply alongside the general terms and conditions of sale, any specific terms and conditions and the purchase order covering the products and services offered by Kompass.
Kompass shall not be responsible for the correctness, exhaustiveness or up-to-date nature of the data and/or programs, information or content (the “Information”) available on the Kompass website. The Information is provided “as is” without any express or implied warranty, including but not limited to warranties as to the possibility of sale, fitness for purpose and absence of breach of the intellectual property of third parties.
Under no circumstances may Kompass or its associated companies be held liable for any direct, indirect, special, consequential or other loss or damage caused by the use of or reliance on the Information located on the Kompass website or on any other website to which that site forwards, including but not limited to failure to make a gain, interruption to business and loss of programs or other data, even where Kompass has expressly warned of the risk of such loss or damage.
Users shall be responsible for any content they place on the Kompass website.
Users undertake to refrain from placing any content on the Kompass website that:
§ is liable to constitute a breach of public order or to breach legal provisions, including those against defamation, the protection of minors, and minorities;
§ is pornographic or degrading in nature;
§ breaches the rights of third parties, including any intellectual property rights, copyrights, or the right to privacy, or that belittles or denigrates the activities or reputation of an advertiser or of any company.
Kompass may therefore not be held liable for the content of any messages or information posted by users or for the content of the information of third parties online, even if that information is accessible via the Kompass website. However, Kompass reserves the right (which it may exercise at its free and unfettered discretion) to examine, modify or delete any content that Kompass considers to be illegal, defamatory, derogatory, offensive or otherwise inappropriate.
Via hypertext links or other links, users can access other websites that are not part of the Kompass website. Kompass may not be held liable and extends no warranty in respect of the websites that users can access from the Kompass website. By accessing a website that does not form part of the Kompass website, users acknowledge and accept that Kompass has no control over any content and information on that website. Users are responsible for protecting their computer equipment against viruses, worms Trojan horses and all other elements of a destructive nature.
Kompass products and services, together with any content referred to on the Kompass website and all elements of the Kompass Group’s visual identity, are registered trademarks, protected by intellectual and industrial property rights held by Kompass or its associated companies. Similarly, the products, services and company names mentioned on the Kompass website are protected by intellectual and industrial property rights. These elements may not be used without the express written permission of Kompass.
Gathering content and information from the Kompass website through the use of robots or any other means is prohibited.
Kompass shall be entitled to modify these general terms and conditions of use at any time, without informing the user. The updated version of the general terms and conditions of use shall come into effect at the moment it is displayed on the Kompass website and users shall be deemed to have accepted the latest version displayed by virtue of using the Kompass website. Users therefore accept to consult the Kompass website on a regular basis. .
The reproduction, modification or distribution of any or all of the Kompass website in any form and in any manner whatsoever is prohibited without the express, written permission of Kompass.

Creating a user account

Some sections of the Kompass website are accessible solely to users having created a user account to enable them to benefit from Kompass’ services. As part of the creation of their user account, users must provide a certain amount of information about themselves and must choose a username and password. Users undertake to provide full, accurate and up-to-date information, and to make any necessary modifications to that information to ensure it remains up-to-date. Kompass reserves the right to suspend or withhold permanently the use of Kompass services if any piece of information provided by a user proves to be inaccurate, incomplete or not up-to-date. Users are solely responsible for keeping their password confidential. Users acknowledge and accept that their account is strictly personal and that communicating their password to third parties is prohibited. Users are wholly liable for any use of their usernames and passwords, whether or not they have authorised that use. Users undertake to inform Kompass immediately of any unauthorised use of their usernames and passwords. If they fail to inform Kompass of this, they may access solely those parts of the Kompass website that do not require the creation of a user account.

Cookies & Form
Cookies: One or more “cookies” will be stored on the hard disk of all computers connected to the Kompass website. A “cookie” is a small file sent by a server consulted by a user and saved on the user’s hard disk.
The “cookies” sent by the Kompass website are not designed to identify the persons connecting to it. They save information about the navigation on the website made from the computer on which the “cookie” is stored. […] undertakes to use this information for statistical purposes only, including to determine Kompass’ website traffic. “Cookies” are in no way intended to be used to make use of nominative personal data concerning the persons connected to the website/the application.
In particular, we measure the number of pages viewed, the number of visits, and the activity of visitors on the website and their return frequency, via the internal solutions of Kompass and its partners. Persons connecting to the Kompass website may also elect not to have “cookies” stored on their hard disk by modifying the options of their software and their internet navigation on their computer:
Navigation with Internet Explorer 5 (Microsoft): Click on “Tools”, “Internet Options”, Security”, “Custom Level”; in the drop-down menu, go to “Cookies”, select “Allow cookies that are stored on your computer”; choose “Ask me” to be asked each time or “Deactivate” to refuse all cookies;
Navigation with Internet Explorer 6, 7 or 8 (Microsoft): Go to “Tools”, “Internet Options”, “Confidentiality”, and choose the level of confidentiality you require;
Navigation with Firefox: Click on “Tools”, “Options”. In “Privacy”, untick “Accept cookies”.
However, Kompass hereby informs subscribers to the services proposed via its website, as well as internet users, that if the browsers installed on their computers are configured to refuse “cookies”, access to some services may be impaired or even impossible.
Some pages of the Kompass website require personal identifying information to be communicated for the purpose of ordering a product or a service or for registering with Kompass. In this regard, users are encouraged to fill out a form on the Kompass website when creating their user account and return that form to Kompass via the website.
KOMPASS will collect this personal identifying information for the purpose of performing commercial transactions.

Description of Kompass’ services
The Kompass information service is a service providing information on companies. It is managed centrally by Kompass International Neuenschwander SA and comprises the communication of data and information on companies compiled and organised via a method designed by Kompass (hereinafter the “Kompass data”) together with other associated information and services. The Kompass information service is available in the “Directory” section acting as a search engine for the Kompass website. The Kompass information service includes information on the products and/or services of third parties and may grant access to information and services provided by third parties.
The order of indexing for the companies involved was compiled by Kompass via its nomenclature. This nomenclature is the exclusive property of Kompass S.A. and is available in over 60 countries and in 24 languages.
In addition to the corporate indexing service, the Kompass package also provides access to advertising/visibility services. Kompass markets its advertising space either on its own behalf or via a Real Media distribution partner.
Moreover, Kompass is attached to the Google media sales house, with the latter managing and distributing AdWords and Google Display campaigns on behalf of third parties with a Kompass account.
Finally, the Kompass package makes it possible to purchase and subscribe to data packages including data extraction as part of its canvassing solution using the EasyBusiness tool, as well as to access direct marketing solutions.

Licence
Kompass grants the User a personal, non-exclusive and non-transferrable licence (hereinafter the “Licence”) to use the EasyBusiness service package and to consult the data of Kompass for internal purposes only in accordance with the provisions of these general terms and conditions of use and the general terms and conditions of sale. Users may not transfer, code, grant sublicenses or transmit in any other manner the rights granted to them under these general terms and conditions of use and the general terms and conditions of sale, and in particular, users must not allow any person (with the exception of duly authorised employees, where the user is a legal person or a commercial association)to use or consult the data of Kompass without obtaining the prior written permission of Kompass or the Kompass franchise/partner concerned. Any requests for information on multiple or joint use must be sent to KOMPASS or to the Kompass franchise/partner concerned.

Kompass property
Users acknowledge that the data of Kompass constitutes a rich ensemble of information and the copyrights, trademarks and all other intellectual and industrial property rights in Kompass services and Kompass data remain the property of Kompass or of its franchises/partners, as appropriate, or of third parties for content provided by such third parties. User may not modify or delete the symbols for copyright or other identifying marks taken from the Kompass visual identity, or any information concerning property rights to Kompass data.
The Kompass brand and the Kompass logo are registered trademarks and must not under any circumstances be reproduced without the express written permission of Kompass.
Except where legally permissible, users must not decompile, disassemble, change or modify any software in full or in part that is accessible via or pertains to Kompass services.

Kompass information sources
Kompass invests in data collection every year. Our main sources of information are the owners or managers of companies and public registers such as trade and companies registers, courts and bankruptcy registers.
Kompass data protection
KOMPASS is governed by local legislation concerning Kompass data protection and the regulatory authorities of the countries in which we operate. We have appointed a Kompass data protection officer for each country and for each market. The responsibilities of this data protection officer include monitoring conforming and drawing up procedures, as well as acting as privileged contacts with local authorities to ensure the protection of Kompass data.

Kompass data quality
Kompass takes adequate measures to guarantee the quality of its service, including contacting companies directly and performing a quality control process when gathering Kompass data, above and beyond the quality control at the end of the collection process.
Kompass has a company policy and written procedures governing the gathering, reliability, quality, updating and communication to third parties of Kompass data. Our employees are governed by strict confidentiality rules. Kompass also places great stead in the professional secrecy to which some professions are subjected.

Procedure for access and correction by companies
Where the owner or manager of a company contacts Kompass regarding a potential error in Kompass data, we will act quickly to correct that error or misleading information as soon as we are informed of it.
Companies may have the information concerning them stricken from the company marketing lists published by Kompass. This deletion must be requested in writing by a duly-authorised representative. For any such requests, please contact our Customer Service by e-mail at the following address: info@kompass.com.

Data protection and Freedoms

In accordance with Law 78-17 of 16 June 1978 as amended on data protection, files and freedoms, real persons shall have the right to access, oppose and amend data and information concerning them by contacting our department at the following address: info@kompass.com.
Kompass gathers information and date on real persons as part of the creation of user accounts, for sales administration purposes.
Personal data collected as part of the creation of CLIENT user accounts for sales administration purposes may be used by KOMPASS and its partners for commercial purposes, within the limits imposed by applicable legislation, such as by informing you of new products and services from KOMPASS and/or its affiliated companies or of any change to existing products and services. Any real persons concerned may exercise their right to object to their data being used for canvassing purposes at any time by contacting the department stipulated in the paragraph above.

Subscribing to paid services and payment
In order to benefit from Kompass’ paid service, users must log in to their user account, select the packages they require and fill in the subscription form.
Subscriptions can be taken out for semi annual or annual services (depending on the option chosen in the subscription form the user fills out). Semi annual and annual subscriptions are renewable tacitly for periods of the same duration, until the service is terminated in accordance with the conditions set out in the general terms and conditions of sale.

Payment for the service is done automatically via a secure solution (System pay) and all invoices issued can be viewed in the user’s user account.

If users subscribe to access to paid services, they must agree to the Kompass general terms and conditions of sale.

Warning concerning the products and services presented on the Kompass website

Access to the products and services described on the Kompass website may be subject to restrictions governing certain persons or in certain countries. None of the products or services presented on the Kompass website will be provided by Kompass to a person if the law of that person’s country of origin, or of any other country affecting them, forbids it. Users are requested to ensure that they are legally entitled to connect to this website in the country from which their connection is made.